Paw Paw Tunnel

Bill had the big egg today

Bill at Paw Paw

July 8 – It’s our day off and we were not sure what we wanted to do.  After we finally finished breakfast and showers we decided to drive to Paw Paw Tunnel, which is on the C & O Canal 26 miles SE of Cumberland, MD.  We went via I-81 to Hancock, MD where we exited into WV.  Then it was small roads up and down and curvy, (gee our favorite kind) and only a couple of towns before we arrived in Paw Paw.  That too was a small town.  The drive took about 2 hours including filling the fuel tank and waiting on the interstate due to road construction.  We drove on to the park area to park.  They have an unattended campground there and there were a few cars and people picnicking.  The walk to the tunnel was .6 of a mile.    Luckily there was a portolet there!  The tunnel took 12 years to build with 6 million bricks.  There are tow paths on both sides but it’s only open to walk thru on one side.  It is suggested you carry flashlights, which we did as it’s 3,100 feet and uneven for walking with water dripping all long the way.  We passed people coming our way and we went about half way and turned around to walk the half mile back to the car. 

 

Kelly on Paw Paw

We were more than ready for lunch and spotted the ONLY place to eat in Paw Paw along the main road.  It was a pizza place and Bill had the calzone which he said was very good and I had an antipasta salad, which was OK.  Considering where we were we were happy to have what we did.

 

We took an all WV route back, which although was still

Berkley Castle

curvy and hilly, it was more evenly populated along the road so we never had the feeling of being in the middle of no where. We went through Berkley Springs on the way and got a quick glance at the Berkley Castle Built in 1895.  We came back through Martinsburg where we stopped at a farmers market for tomatoes, cantaloupe and peaches.  They were all grown right there on the farm.  Some of the prices were high but they were really busy.  Then we stopped at the mall to find a Verizon store.  A couple who was fishing at the aqueduct by the campground found a Verizon cell phone there and had brought it to us.  We needed a code to use the phone so thought we could take it to Verizon and they could notify the person that we had it.  Well, we found out that Verizon doesn’t have locations in a couple of the counties here due to not being allowed on the cell towers. 

 

After a quick stop at Aldi we headed home for a dinner of leftovers.  We did a sweep of the campground and it wasn’t too bad.  We settled in to watch our shows!